Frat Boys: Inside America's Fraternities Page #5

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assault reports...

..and no-one wants to be

the rape school.

The institution is set up in a lot

of ways that allows for sexual

assault to thrive.

We have vulnerable victims

that are accessible.

Two, we have interested

perpetrators,

and then, three, we have an

institutional motive to sweep sexual

violence under the rug,

because it's going to

make them look bad.

Study after study shows that

fraternity men are three times more

likely to sexual assault

than non-fraternity men.

I can certainly say that,

you know, nothing about

sexual relations with somebody else

is part of the fraternity system

period.

It's not something that is any

part of our operations, our ritual,

the things that we believe in.

Do those type of things happen

because you've got guys

who are of a certain age and

together and maybe there's a little

bit of peer influence?

Or the same way that there would be

with the military or with a sports

team?

Perhaps, yes.

A study commissioned by the

American Association of Universities

found that one in four female

college students reported unwanted

sexual contact

and more than one in eight

experienced serious sexual assaults.

I honestly have lost track of how

many people that I know

that have been sexually assaulted.

It's hard to, like, look at all

the houses and be, like...

when you know your closest friends

were raped there, it's really hard.

Yeah, this is...

..a love/hate relationship with

this place.

Fond memories and bad.

Syracuse University says it has been

at the forefront

in the fight against

sexual and relationship violence

and it has a strong structure in

place to prevent and respond to

sexual and relationship violence.

Last year, 16 students were

suspended or expelled.

In Florida, there's just a week

left of pledging.

Cheers, cheers.

Good morning, good morning.

And the Gazoni Family have an

important men-only event planned.

All right, let's go! Let's go!

Today's our brotherhood

retreat event.

We are at ManChild Land,

pretty excited. I don't know what

to expect from it.

It's bonding time.

One, two, three.

THEY CHEER:

Yo, we're here!

Today's event takes place in

the extensive grounds of one

the brother's family homes.

We're at ManChild Land.

We've got a tiki hut, private beach.

We've got everything.

All right, y'all. Listen up.

This is an exercise that we call

Over The Rope.

The object - your entire class has

three chances

to make it over the rope and however

you do that is up to you.

But you cannot go under the rope,

you cannot touch the rope.

If you do not get in three tries,

you fail. All right?

Let's get a move on, team.

The idea behind Over The Rope

is for all of our new guys

who are looking to be initiated

at the end of this semester

to learn that, you know, we're

stronger as a group.

One, two, three... Whoa, whoa, whoa!

THEY CHEER:

Let's go.

One, two, three.

Jump. F***, yeah.

You know, as the group of guys

getting over the rope gets smaller

and smaller,

it becomes more difficult to get

the next person over the rope.

ALL:
Ooh!

KEEP IT GOING! Let see it.

ALL:
One, two, three.

THEY CHEER:

All, right, guys - come here -

bring it in.

Yo, bring it in!

So what this is supposed to

symbolise to you guys is...

that we're stronger as a unit

and as you guys divide up

and you become individuals,

the task becomes a lot harder.

Remember that if you are lucky

enough to become brothers.

Go drink!

CHEERING AND CHATTER

Tomorrow, the brothers will decide

who makes it into the fraternity.

No-one wants to f*** up, but...

at the same time, you don't want

to try and suck up to them all day,

they're probably not going

to like that either.

Just be yourself, that's what

they've said

from the start of the semester.

Some of the brothers have got

their doubts

about Jordan's commitment.

He hasn't been coming around often,

like, he has a lot of work.

He had to take

a test on the fraternity,

didn't do too well, like...

Brothers take that accountable

and it might hurt him,

but he has today to like,

bring that back, know what I mean?

Um, this is what we call

circle of brothers.

And basically,

what I'm going to kick off,

I'm going to kick off what this

organisation has done for me

and what I would like to do to help

this organisation in the future.

So this organisation,

it has...

truly made me a man.

It just solidifies the fact more

that this is exactly what

I want to do, so.... And it was

important to come out today,

this is a big bonding event

for the brothers

and it's one of your main bonding

events this semester, so they

would have looked at it a bit like,

OK, maybe you don't want to be here.

In the future,

I want to make good connections

outside the fraternity,

help out any brother who needs help

with work, anything like that.

In the future, when I make a good

amount of money, come back

and like Tim, make some donations

and stuff like that.

OK, Jordan, let's go. Not to be able

to enjoy it any more after this

would kind of suck. I see this

and I want to do this as a brother.

Since the day I've been here,

I've wanted it, really bad, like.

I wanted it so bad.

I can smell the other side,

put it that way, and I want it.

I'm doing it. Yeah.

There's no stopping me.

It's time for the brothers to decide

who will get through to initiation.

THEY CALL OUT NAMES AND NUMBERS

The brothers have a final vote

on who gets in.

We're not going to be

there to see the vote.

I've put in a lot of time

and effort this semester,

as have all the other pledges.

I think there's always a chance

that they could say no.

INDISTINC ..Initiate Jordan Cole - are there

any objections?

Yes. Let's go.

Jordan is the first

to be discussed.

As you guys know,

I'm pretty adamant that this kid not

get included in this initiation.

The way I see it, we all worked hard

to get to where we are and, um...

I'm not about to devalue the entire

pledge process for one kid

who did not come around to

any of the events that he was

asked to come to up until this

last week. I would think he has

put in the least amount of work

as any pledge I've seen here.

The final vote is,

you need 87.66% approval rate.

There's not a single thing about

where we came from, how we

started or where we're going, and

I don't want to take him with us.

There's cons and pros, we talk

about it, a lot of speeches go on.

So, I have assigned him

multiple things to do.

I don't know if you guys are aware,

but multiple weeks, he does not turn

in any interviews and just tells me,

"Oh, I'll get you ten next week".

"I'll get you ten the next week."

I like the kid as a person, I think

he's a cool-ass kid, but do I think

he's putting in the effort that we

all have put in to become a brother?

No, I do not.

So, I'm his big brother.

The only time he missed the five

interviews was

when he was in Chicago.

Five interviews, that's all

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